Your health is too important to leave to healthcare professionals.
This sobering truth is what the book is all about. My motivation for writing the book comes from the unsatisfactory state of US healthcare.
Consider these dismal statistics...
- Up to 40% of American patients are misdiagnosed
- Medical errors in hospitals cause over 400,000 deaths per year in the US by recent estimates, making them the country’s third leading cause of death
- The US is ranked last for quality of care by The Commonwealth Fund in a listing of 11 similarly developed countries
- Drugs and healthcare in general in the US cost twice as much as in equivalent industrialized countries
- Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy for Americans
These are the result of a system where:
- There is an overload of information and innovation no doctor can keep up with
- Legislation that disadvantages the patient
- A health system run like a treadmill by corporations as profit centers
- Unbridled profiteering by hospitals, drug and medical device companies, who then have massive lobbying clout from those profits
- There are numerous insurance companies in the market – all acting like insurance companies and scrimping on your care.
- It’s hard to be well informed because there is so much misleading information on the internet
It’s your guide to becoming a well-informed, in-control, assertive, proactive, empowered participant in your own medical care (or that of your loved one).
The chapters walk you through:
- Finding the right doctor for your needs and preferences
- Getting to the right diagnosis
- Tracking down the most reliable healthcare information
- Deciding on the best courses of treatment
- Keeping medical bills as low as possible and getting help paying them
- Ensuring a dignified death minimizing pain and emotional hardship
- Benefiting from new and upcoming medical science breakthroughs
- Assembling your own at-home DIY medical kit.
It's an attempt to help you avoid being one of the 400,000 Americans who die each year from hospital medical errors. Or one of the almost 40% of US patients misdiagnosed and/or mistreated. Or one of the many millions of people driven into bankruptcy or excessively burdened by medical bills.So many forces constantly jeopardize your ability to get the best healthcare. Take charge as an empowered patient with Managing Your Doctor: The Smart Patient’s Guide to Getting Effective, Affordable Healthcare.
